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LESS POWER, MORE MONEY
T
here’s money to be made by
poking your nose into customers’
electrical consumption.
It’s OK to use larger energy-intensive
industries as examples, but they fall
outside the financial capabilities of
smaller electrical contractors.
However, there’s business to be
had from the more modest consumers
of electricity.
Don’t be surprised if you get a cool
reception at first, because many people
think there isn’t much that can be done
to save on electricity.
When you next walk in to your
supermarket, big or small, think about
the following:
>
Annual electrical consumption can be
as high as 500MWhr for a 1,000m
2
store. Scale that down by floor area
for your local store and you still have a
good potential prospect.
>
Grocery retailing energy costs can
be as high as 1% of sales. In case that
sounds low, remember that profit
margins are not much greater.
>
The big loads are heating, ventilation
and air-conditioning, and refrigeration
– representing about 70%, with lighting
at 20%. There’s also loss of refrigerant,
which is a big cost, and it makes
equipment consume more energy.
Your local fast food outlet might well be
able to save 10-20% of its energy bill, and
the usage might be 50-100MWh a year.
Regional hospitals typically consume
more than 100kWhr/m
2
each year, and
their tight budgets make saving energy
an important issue.
There are also energy savings
in agricultural and regional centre
businesses as shown in Table 1.
In general, substantial savings are
likely to be found in kVA demand
reduction as well as in kWh reduction.
Have a look at a sample calculation set
out further down.
WHAT’S BEENHAPPENING
In the national electrical supply sector
we are flat-lining in terms of terawatt/
hours (equal to 1,012Wh).
This wasn’t caused by Labor’s carbon
tax, as it barely got up anyway. Rather,
DEALING WITH POWER QUALITY
PROBLEMS IN SMALL AND
MEDIUM INSTALLATIONS CAN BE
A SOURCE OF NEW BUSINESS
FOR CONTRACTORS.
PHIL
KREVELD
EXPLAINS.
TABLE 1: ELECTRICITYCOSTSASA
PERCENTAGE OFOPERATING EXPENSES
Dairy
4%
Beef/sheep, broad acres
2%
Vegetable crops
3%
Broilers
15%
Supermarkets
15%
Fast food
5%
LET’S GET TECHNICAL
E L EC TR I C AL CONNEC T I ON
SUMME R 20 1 6
Power consumption of a fast food restaurant in NSW. The red trace indicates apparent power (kVA). The green trace indicates useful
power in kW and the blue trace shows reactive power in kVAr. The image indicates the situation after the installation of a Sinexel SVG
static var compensator. Note the dramatic reduction in kVAr from 40kVAr to 5kVAr after the var compensator was activated. The
power factor has now been improved to value of 0.9988. The static var compensator is stepless allowing compensation without under
or over compensation. (Image courtesy of Fuseco Power Solutions.)